"We have to make up for lost time. When Beckham came we went from earning seven million euros a year to 45 a year through deals with our sponsors. We salvaged the situation of the club. If Cristiano Ronaldo comes, even though Nike currently sponsors him, he then puts on an Adidas shirt every week," Perez said.

"There are certain players who are very profitable because they have spectacular commercial repercussions that earn the club money. We once earned 15million euros for two games in Japan. Now they would not pay that but in that era we had Figo, Zidane, Ronaldo and Beckham.